ON a day like any other, as 2009 drew near, neo-liberalism fell flat on its face. But it is still not easy for the drama on the theme “the State and the market” to be brought to an end.

In Australia, for instance, the Labor Party Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, wrote an essay published in The Monthly early this year: the crisis now threatening the world is the climax of “neo-liberalism” that has dominated economic policy since 1978. Now its